Giving Thought

In episode 14, Rhod and Adam take a look at the field of behavioural economics and how it affects philanthropy. Topics covered include:

• Classical Economics and charity: classical economics assumes we are all rational and self-interested, so it cannot explain behaviour that is apparently irrational and purely altruistic. Hence new explanatory mechanisms have arisen- in particular the "warm glow" theory which posits that all altruism is in fact "impure" because donors actually get a benefit from their giving. Subsequent neurological experiments have also backed this idea up. So what does this mean for efforts to encourage philanthropy?

• Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink: Richard Thaler recently received the Nobel Prize for Economics for his work on so-called "nudge theory". This proposes that small changes in the way information is presented or choices offered can have a significant effect on outcomes at a macro level. Can we harness this insight to drive more charitable giving? What kind of nudges could we use?

• Fast & Slow Thinking: Another economist Daniel Kahneman, won the Nobel Prize for his theory of "System 1 and System 2 thinking" which distinguishes between the roles that deliberative ("slow") thought and less-deliberative thought based on heuristics ("fast thought") play in our decision making. What lessons could this offer for philanthropy? Are there tensions between the desire to make giving more strategic and evidence that appealing to "fast thinking" may be more effective in eliciting donations?

Related Giving Thought material

• Is Our Approach to Encouraging Charitable Giving Totally Wrong?

• Reciprocity & Altruism

In episode 13, Rhod and Adam ask whether we could ever see the end of charities? Topics covered include:

- Achieving the mission: Is the best possible end result for a charity to make itself redundant by solving the social or environmental problem it was founded to address? And does this ever happen in practice? We look at the importance role that criticisms of there being "too many charities" have played in the history of philanthropy, and ask whether evolution is more likely than dissolution for most organisations.

-Direct cash transfers: The long-term trend in philanthropy has been towards ever-greater intermediation and professionalisation; but in recent years we have seen new technology-driven models that might take us back to a model of direct person-to-person philanthropy. Where could this model bring advantages, and could it even disrupt the whole marketplace for philanthropy?

-Blockchain & DAOs: Blockchain technology could bring many benefits and challenges for philanthropy. One intriguing possibility is that governance structures themsleves could be decentralised, so that people can come form networks to work together but without the need for a centralised structure. What could this mean for the notion of a charitable organisation and the options for us all to take social action?

Related Giving Thought content:

-Public Good by Private Means (BOOK)

-A Timeline of Modern British Philanthropy

-Crisis and Response: What history tells us about the challenges facing UK charities

-The Rise of Direct Giving in Development Philanthropy

-The Decentralisation of Good: Blockchain, DAOs and the Future of Charity

-What Opportunities Does Blockchain Offer?

Who doesn't love a bit of healthy competition? In this episode, Rhod and Adam ask which country is the most generous in the world. Topics covered include;

2017 World Giving Index: Every year CAF publishes the world's most comprehensive analysis of charitable activity. This year's index reveals a global fall in giving with the exception of Africa which is witnessing a remarkable rise.

The potential of middle class giving in emerging economies: A new campaign by CAF called Groundwork for Growing Giving reveals the staggering potential ($319bn annually) of growing middle classes in the developing world to supercharge global charitable giving over the next generation.

Is giving related to the size of the state?: We explore whether the evidence supports the idea that charitable giving can only thrive in small state / low tax environments.

Related Giving Thought material:

• Report: 2017 World Giving Index
• Blog: World Giving Index shows Africa is the exception in a less generous world
• Video: CAF World Giving Index
• Microsite: Groundwork for Growing Giving
• Report: Gross Domestic Philanthropy: An international analysis of GDP, tax and giving
• Report: Give Me a Break: Why the UK should not aspire to a "US-style" culture of charitable giving

In this episode, Rhod and Adam look at the relationship between place and philanthropy. Topics covered include:

-Does charity still begin at home?: Has the relationship between place and philanthropy become weaker over time, and what if anything can we do to reverse this downward trend? Can philanthropy be used to boost civic identity and pride, or does it rely on people having an existing sense of place?

-The Dark Side of Civic Philanthropy: When does philanthropic action within a local area start to become a problem? We consider examples like Detroit, where philanthropic funders stepped in to cover vital services when the city went bankrupt, and what these highlight about the potential risks.

-A new sense of place?: What does 'place' actually mean to each of us? In a highly connected, mobile world, do traditional notions of geographic locality have any relevance when it comes to philanthropy? Should we instead be thinking of new dispersed communities of interest or identity, such as diaspora communities? Or has technology actually made us think more locally than ever?

Related Giving Thought material:

Giving a Sense of Place: Philanthropy and the future of UK civic identity

Chain Links: The role of mayors in building a culture of civic philanthropy

Big Apple turnover: does the election of New York's new mayor spell tough times for philanthropy?

In this episode, Rhod and Adam explore the question of "bad money" and the challenges this poses for philanthropy and charities. Topics covered include:

-Dubious donations: what should charitable organisations do when they are offered donations from sources whose ethics or morals are run counter to their own? In cases where no law has been broken, who decides on what is "good" or not? Can saying no to donations actually bring risks beyond the obvious financial loss?

-Money laundering and Terrorism Financing: Some money is from sources that are obviously bad, so what can charities and donors do to avoid being used by those with criminal intentions? Could efforts to address these challenges be causing disproportionate problems for legitimate organisations? And could they even be making the problems they seek to address worse in some cases?

-Charities and ethical investment: We look at how charities invest their own money. Although ethical investment is now a mainstream thing, it is still not the default in the charity world- why not? Is the responsibility of charity trustees merely to maximise investment returns to spend on their own cause, or do they have wider responsibilities?

Related Giving Thought Material:

-When should charities say no to donations?

-The Wages of Sin?- Doing good with "bad" money

-Killing them with kindness: philanthropy as a weapon

-International body removes assumption of CSO terror financing risk

-What should civil society expect from the UK Anti-Corruption Summit?

-Should charities invest ethically?

-Doing well and doing good: can charities be social investors?

In episode 9 of the Giving Thought podcast, Rhod and Adam look at some of the psychological motivations that drive philanthropy, including:

• Social Status: Is a desire for enhanced social status part of the "warm glow" that people get from giving? How has the relationship between philanthropy and social status played out through history? Does highly visible giving place greater expectations on the donor, as well as bringing improved social status? And what impact will social media have on the way we feel about promoting our own giving?

• Proximity: We look at the "proximity effect" - the idea that actual physical proximity and contact with the symptoms of social problems is an important determining factor in people's willingness to give. Does increasing physical distance between rich and poor communities undermine the philanthropic instinct? And will new technologies like conversational interfaces and augmented/virtual reality distance us even further from the world around us and thus make us less likely to give?

• Victim Blaming: Does our perception of whether the victims of social and environmental disasters can be held as partly to blame for their own misfortune affect our willingness to give We look at the difference between responses to "man made" and "natural" disasters, and what this tells us about how charities should talk about their work.

Related Content from Giving Thought:

- Philanthropy and the City of London

- Uncomfortable reality: 3 ways Augmented and Virtual Reality could change charitable giving

- Is technology making us care less about each other?

- Reciprocity and Altruism

- WhDonors prone to blaming the victims of man-made humanitarian disasters

In episode 8 of the Giving Thought podcast, Rhod and Adam look at the long and complicated relationship between philanthropy and education, including:

• Charitable status of UK public schools: we look at the ongoing controversy over the charitable status of fee-paying schools in the UK. What is the history behind the definition of "educational purposes" in charity law? How do we interpret "public benefit" for public schools?

• The US Charter School movement: we explore the role that philanthropy has played in the growth of the charter school model in the US, and why this has raised questions about philanthropic legitimacy. We look at the controversial intervention of donors like Mark Zuckerberg in the New Jersey school system, and what we can learn from it.

• Universities: we look at the rich history of the relationship between philanthropy and universities. We consider the role that giving played in opening up higher education to the masses, and the current landscape of giving to universities in the US and UK, in which mega-donations are becoming the norm.

Related content from Giving Thought

• Public Good by Private Means: How Philanthropy Shapes Britain

• A Timeline of Modern British Philanthropy

• The 11 best books on the history of philanthropy (plus a free bibliography)

• Why the Criticism of Mark Zuckerberg's Philanthropy is Both Wrong and Right

In episode 7 of the Giving Thought podcast Rhod and Adam take a look at the origins of philanthropy, including:

• Altruism and Evolution: why does the existence of altruistic behaviour continue to present a significant challenge for evolutionary theory? Can this add to our understanding of philanthropy, and if so how?

• A Brief History of Western Philanthropy: we attempt to cover the 450 or so years since the birth of modern philanthropy in roughly 3 minutes. Including: the Reformation and its role in the emergence of secular forms of giving, the development of associational philanthropy and the charitable organisation, the use of social research and the role of philanthropy in shaping state provision of welfare.

• Non-western philanthropic traditions: we look at some of the other traditions of giving around the world, and ask whether efforts to develop a philanthropic culture should do more to build on these existing forms of generosity and altruism.

Related content from Giving Thought:

• Public Good by Private Means: How Philanthropy Shapes Britain

• A Timeline of Modern British Philanthropy

• The 11 best books on the history of philanthropy (plus a free bibliography)

• Future World Giving: Unlocking the potential of global philanthropy

• Pakistanis should be proud of their charitable culture, but not complacent

• Is Burma a global leader in charitable giving?

• Study shows how a western concept of charity undervalues South African generosity

Episode 6 of the Giving Thought podcast looks at the issue of transparency of civil society organisations and philanthropy. Rhod and Adam take a tour through the following topics:

• The case for transparency: it has long been said that philanthropy needs to become more transparent in order to identify gaps, duplications drive efficiency, identify trends and increase accountability. Furthermore, advances in technology mean that philanthropy 'Big Data' could present powerful new opportunities for strategic giving. In addition, it has been recognised that when the powerful and the wealthy use their philanthropy to exert influence anonymously it can lead to a democratic deficit.
• In defence of anonymity: philanthropy is often a very personal and emotional act and in some cultures and religions, donors are expected to give without taking credit. In other words, to give transparently may undermine the emotional rewards of giving. There are also situations where transparency could put philanthropy - and beneficiaries in particular - at risk. A trend for restricting foreign funding to advocacy and human rights groups could mean that calls for transparency by some governments are being used to flush out and silence critical voices in society. Finally, some wealthy philanthropists believe that the only way to fund grass roots movements which are challenging the current system is to do so anonymously in order to break the link between donor (necessarily a beneficiary of the system) and charity.
• Blockchain and radical transparency: By ensuring that all transactions of cryptocurrencies or other non-fungible assets are recorded on a public ledger which is distributed across a shared global network, blockchain technology could create a transparency so total that it revolutionises the very concept. Such could be the impact of blockchain on philanthropy, it might mean an end to regulation, intermediary organisations or even the notion of charities themselves as we currently understand them.

Related content from Giving Thought:

• Blog: Knowing Me, Knowing You: Self-sovereign digital identity and the future of charity
• Blockchain technology microsite:
• Giving Unchained: Blockchain technology is seen as potentially revolutionary.
• Block & Tackle: Could blockchain technology transform the way charities are created and regulated?
• Video on the impact of blockchain on regulation
• Philanthropy Infrastructure: A boring name for something on which civil society's future rests

Episode 5 of the Giving Thought podcast looks at the role of business when it comes to doing social good, and what this means for philanthropy in general. Rhod and Adam take a tour through the following topics:

• Why should businesses do good? We ask what theoretical grounding there is for expecting companies to show social responsibility or perform philanthropic acts is. Is there a social contract that places responsibilities on companies just as it does on individuals, or does it always come down to self-interest in some form or another? And is that merely the pragmatic self-interest of wanting good PR or employee satisfaction, or can it be a more enlightened self-interest that recognises the longer-term value of a healthy civil society?

• We also look at the emergence of new business models that combine social purpose and commercial focus. We ask whether the idea of combining a commercial purpose with a social one is actually far older than we often think, and whether we could learn something from the business philanthropists of the past.

• The impact of the SDGs: We look at the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and ask whether the prominence of businesses in plans to meet these goals could result in philanthropy getting sidelined.

• Beyond Integrity: we take a look at a report CAF published last year in collaboration with the LSE, highlighting cases where companies have taken action to defend the basic freedoms of civil society, often at apparent odds with their own commercial self-interest. We explore whether these cases represent a wider trend, or whether they are best understood as examples of best practice that other companies should aspire to.

Related content from Giving Thought:

• Beyond Integrity: why civil society needs to engage business in defending civic space
• Appealing to the enlightened self-interest of partners to reinforce civil society
• Philanthropy and the Global Goals: a brave new world?
• How can global business improve society?
• Philanthropy and the SDGs: no-brainer or Faustian pact?
• Meet The Philanthropists: sweet charity - how Cadbury, Rowntree and Fry gave us some of our greatest philanthropists